The Bazaar at SLS by Jose Andres, Los Angeles

Jose Andres apparently angered many people with his over the top rendition of a traditional Philly Cheese steak. Its a piece of lightly seared beef topped with chives, served atop a dubious looking ‘Air bread’- shaped like a football, crisp on the outside but completely hollow on the inside, and liquid cheddar cheese pumped in to fill the hollow center of the ‘Air bread’, this was a 2-bite, maximum impact dish that gave you mouth-gasms, and sent your tastebuds into a fit with a sudden jolt of incredibly strong flavours and contrasting textures. Why o why wasn’t there more on the plate, I could have had 10 of these as a starter. Very Good

California Cone

Guacamole with tomato hearts

I dont really have a thing for tomatoes, and the part of the tomato I hate the most is probably the seeds, so I was prepared to hate this dish before I even put it into my mouth, but boy was I surprised. The tomato hearts were surprisingly refreshing and, wait for it….. DIDNT SUCK. In fact, they were pretty good, the seeds had a gelatinous cool gelatinous coating, and the seeds had a nice crunch to them, the softness of the guac and the crispness of the cone played really well together. This doesn’t have anything on Keller’s coronets, but it was good.

Foie Gras Sandwich

Quince, Brioche

A nice block of creamy, melt in your mouth foie, a quick burst of sweet quince jam, stuck between two perfect, PERFECT broiche buns, and everyone knows broiche is king of the breads, RIGHT? It worked on paper and it was executed perfectly. Very Good

Sea Urchin buns

Avocado, Steamed buns

I love Uni, its one of my favourite ingredients and it isn’t nearly used as much as I would like, so I try to order it as often as I can if its on the menu. The uni used for the bun was very fresh, thats the good. The bad was that the type of bun used was the wrong choice. It was far too chewy to support delicate ingredients like avocado and uni, by the time you were actually done chewing, the uni and avocado was long gone. Okay

Croquetasde Pollo

Chicken and béchamel fritters

This was one of the more famous dishes at the bazaar. Its simple- shredded chicken, bechamel sauce, made into a croquete. The result? A crisp exterior, and a creamy, rich interior. The contrasts of textures was amazing, but I felt that the bechamel completely overpowered any chicken shreds, and there was barely a hint of chicken flavour at the end. Good

Sauteed Shrimp

Garlic, guindilla pepper

I didnt have much of this, but I felt that the shrimp was a little overcooked for my liking. Seasoning was on point though. Okay

Eggs Benedict ‘New Way’

Iberico Ham

Sous Vide egg, regular Iberico jamon, crisped Iberico jamon, hollandaise foam, and broiche. Holy cow, this was my dream come true on a plate. Sous vide egg was good, creamy(though its kinda hard to screw up a sous vide egg), jamon was very very good, and I loved the dehydrated version as well, just as flavourful in a crisp form. The only problem I had with the dish was, there was not enough hollandaise foam on the plate, and whatever was on the plate, wasn’t intensely flavoured enough. Every component worked on its own, but when you ate it together, the dish relyed heavily on the iberico jamon for flavour, theres nothing wrong with that, but that isn’t what an eggs benedict should be. Good

Rossejat

Paella-style pasta, shrimp

Almost everyone at the table shrieked: FRIED BEE HOON the moment this arrived at our table. As far as I know, this is more commonly known in Spain as Fideua. “Noodles are fried in oil before adding fish broth – a very special technique that may only be found in Italy or China; noodles get a tan golden color or even dark, since they are fine noodles (hair of angel), when coming off dry, they get erected (they “have” an erection).” This is a whole new meaning to food porn. Whats amazing about this dish is the amount of flavour that was incorporated into the noodles, its deceptively simple yet it tasted divine. I cannot imagine how good the seafood broth used in the dish must have been. Very Good

Chocolate Mousse and Apple sorbet

The chocolate mousse was actually very very light and easy to eat, chocolate used was also bitter enough to balance the sweetness of the sorbet. Good

Watermelon Tomato Skewers

Pedro Ximénez reduction, cherry tomatoes

I couldnt taste the wine reduction, and Im not crazy about tomatoes, especially the seeds; but when eaten together with an extremely large chuck of deliciously sweet and juicy watermelon, it was delicious. Great refreshing way to start the meal

Apples “Carlota”

Bread pudding with saffron sauce

The ice cream is milk ice cream, and this is actually supposed to be a deconstructed apple pie. “Carlota” is actually the name of Jose Andres’s daughter who loved this dish. I didn’t particularly get the ‘deconstructed’ aspect of the dish, it seemed like the sauce and the pie were separate, but was this really a ‘deconstruction’? , however, everything tasted very good, both individually, and eaten together. Good

Creamy Chocolate Heart

Coffee and cardamom

Basically a molten chocolate cake, good but not great. The white bed that the cake is sitting on is a cardamom foam that had a surprising amount of body to it(for a foam). Im pretty sure Marcel from Top chef had something to do with this because I saw him coming in and out of the kitchen, seeing as to how he loves foams and all that. Okay

Braised Veal CheeksCalifornia oranges

Cheeks were very tasty, and soft to the point where running your fork through them completely took it apart, meat was somewhat stringy consistency, but it also had a good amount of fat that made sure it didnt try out, very satisfying dish. And the 3 tiny slices of orange were incredibly sweet and fresh, I wish there were more. Good

Bonus Shot of the restroom at the SLS Hotel. Redonkulous

Jose Andres worked at El Bulli and trained under Ferran Adria for many years, hes considered the main guy who brought molecular gastronomy tapas style food to America. Clearly, many of the dishes I had during my 2 visits to the Bazaar are very avant garde, but Andres has also shown that the food can be innovative and new, but at the same time, very, very delicious.